READING HABITS AND SELF-ASSESSMENT OF READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS AMONG HUNGARIAN STUDENTS IN SLOVAKIA

This paper introduces the results of a survey examining the reading habits and self-assessment of reading comprehension skills of Hungarian students in Slovakia. As the largest ethnic minority in Slovakia is Hungarian, it has extensive primary and secondary native language school networks. The purpose of this research is to map the reading habits and self-assessment of reading comprehension skills of students to answer the question how these subjective views of different age groups change and what indicators (social background, school success) they correlate with. We have chosen questionnaires composed of 28 questions as a method for examining the students’ reading habits. The total number of survey respondents was 131. There were 98 respondents from average schools where reading comprehension and reading habits are not taught separately. In that case three age groups were involved: 23 students at a secondary grammar school, 38 pupils in the second stage of primary school and 37 pupils in the first stage of primary school. Interestingly, there is no big difference in reading attitudes among the different age groups. The respondents’ answers prove that only a fraction of students read in their free time. On the other hand, the groups, regardless of age, subjectively claim that they do not have problems with reading comprehension tasks. They claim that reading is easy for them, so they understand everything that they read. It can be concluded that these statements are highly controversial with the results of international surveys. At a later stage of the research the survey was conducted in a primary school where pupils have regularly reading comprehension classes. The number of respondents from this school was 33. There were 21 pupils from the second stage and 12 pupils from the first stage of primary school. Based on the results, there are considerable differences in the answers provided by the two groups. The pupils from the primary school with reading comprehension classes differently judge their level of understanding. These results have potential implications for further research to determine the reading habits and reading comprehension skills of Hungarian pupils in Slovakia.

Theoretical and practical aspects relating to occupational accidents aboard ships

This study analyses the theoretical and practical aspects relating to a special category of occupational accidents, more precisely the occupational accidents aboard ships. The International Labour Organization (I.L.O.), while aware of the importance of this topic, has issued the Maritime Labour Convection (MLC 2006) – ratified by Romania through the Law no. 214/2015 - ensuring the legal framework for maritime personnel by taking into account the special labour conditions thereof. On the internal level, a series of regulations in the Romanian law provide a legal framework in this matter. Among these, we may mention the Guide of March 19, 2018 for the safe management and health protection of seafarers aboard the ships flying the Romanian flag, a document bringing important regulations in this field. In this study we will also present the jurisprudential issues regarding the occupational accidents aboard ships which, together with the theoretical approach, will lead conclusions relating to the relevant regulations in the internal law.

THE OPPORTUNITY OF DEVELOPING RURAL WELLBEING TOURISM IN PUGLIA REGION, ITALY IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The tourism industry is facing nowadays a wide range of issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic or accentuated by it. The dramatic decline in tourist flows in every destination forced stakeholders to rethink the actual model of business and to adapt to the new reality. The need for social distancing and the fear of tourists to visit crowded places prepared the field for more sustainable tourist activity, based on green products and services. In this context, new and innovative products like rural wellness tourism can take momentum and offer the visitors the opportunity of spending the free time in nature, in less polluted areas and with a higher impact of health. Italy is one of the most representative tourist destinations worldwide, with a wide range of attractions that make both urban and rural spots to be visited annually by millions of tourists. Tourism also supports the local economy and helps local communities from less developed regions to diversify their sources of income, as is the case of Puglia region, known for its agricultural potential. Puglia is one of the Italian regions where local authorities encourage the development of tourist activities, especially those specific to the ecotourism niche, as a real alternative to agriculture. In the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic, ecotourism can represent the solution for a faster economic recovery of the southern region of the country that was dramatically affected by the lockdown imposed by the authorities in the first part of 2020. Based on the wellness tradition from the region and the international reputation of the Termes from this area, Puglia region can develop the concept of rural wellbeing tourism and promote a more sustainable tourist model. The present paper analyses the potential of Puglia region to introduce in its offer rural wellbeing tourism packages taking into account the profile of a spa and thermal center in the area in terms of structure and business model. The results were obtained by applying a structured questionnaire in one of the most representative thermal units in the region and the answers were interpreted using Qualitative Content Analysis. The results show that Puglia region could thrive the concept of rural wellbeing tourism and adapt it to the particularities of the area. Adopting such an innovative tourist concept that is based on a sustainable way to explore natural resources would have a significant impact on Italian tourism by creating a new trend among tourists. In this regard, the guests will have another opportunity to spend their holidays more sustainably, with a considerably lower impact on the environment.

THE IMPACT OF THE POLITICAL REGIMES ON THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PROTO-CZECHS, THE OLDEST GENERATION OF THE CZECH ELITES AND THE INTERWAR CZECHOSLOVAK ELITES

The role of the Proto-Czechs, the oldest generation of the elites and the interwar elites in the national memory can be advanced by showing the examples of the impact of the political regimes on the interpretation of the symbolic role of the individual elite members. The contribution draws on those concepts and methodological approaches that have been employed by the number of historians and historical sociologists such as historical consciousness, collective (social) memory and national memory; a major incentive for choice of the individual elite members were several sociological researchers on the Czech elites. The pluralist debates about the impact of the Czech elites and their contributions were launched in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and developed by the several generations of the Czech and the foreign historians. This thesis about the impact of the political regimes on the interpretation of the contributions of the Czech elites can be illustrated by (1)the current importance of the Proto‒Czech elites such as Saint Wenceslaus I. [Svatý Václav], (Saints) Cyril and Methodius, Božena Němcová and Karel Havlíček Borovský, (2)the popularity of the members of the interwar political elite such as the economist Alois Rašín, the journalist Milena Jesenská, the politician Františka Plamínková and the diplomat Zdeněk Fierlinger, (3)the positive and negative reponse to the actions of the communist elites such as Rudolf Slánský, Klement Gottwald, Alexander Dubček and Gustav Husák and (4)the evaluation of the members of the communist counter-elite and later democratic elite such as Václav Havel and Petr Pithart.

LANDSCAPE AND VIDEOART: THE NEW LANDSCAPE OF THE ANTHROPOCENE

We live in a new era -the Anthropocene-. And in a new society with its corresponding mentality and consciousness. But, we keep representing and interpreting the landscape, mainly, through the codes inherited from the Romanticism. This research will address artistic proposals that unite videoart and landscape. After reviewing the wide actual art panorama, we have identified a new type of landscape in the Contemporary Art. A landscape that does represent our society through its typical formal and conceptual codes, and that projects the vision and mentality of the Anthropocene’s society. We have identified a group of practices that by using the new technologies, the concerns of the 21st Century’s society and the new languages that characterize the technological era, such as the audiovisual, are creating a new landscape tradition. Resources like the moving imaging, the immersion feeling, the sensoriality or the audiovisual language are intrinsic to the society of the technological era. On other hand, we truly believe that this resurgence of Landscape in the Postmodernity is related to the environmental crisis that we are living. We have noticed that throughout the ages, after periods of big technoscientific development, humans have always gone back to Nature. Actually, Landscape have experienced its most golden periods after epochs of big development, like the 17th Century with the first recognised landscape paintings by Jacob van Ruysdael and Claude de Lorraine, or in the 19th Century with the romantic Landscape. We do not think that this is chance and for this reason, we will also study these landscapes from an anthropological perspective, a point of view that art historians have always ignorated so far[1]. [1] This paper is an extended version of the conference given at the 6th International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences and Arts SGEM 2019 in Vienna, April 11-14th 2019. <https://doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2019V/6.1>

BERLIN NEUE NATIONALGALERIE. A CONTEMPORARY VIEW OF THE MODERN TEMPLE

Mies van der Rohe´s approach to architecture through a poetic structural skeleton, abstractly refined to become a universal prototype of the essence of form and spiritualization of space, can be best seen at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. This unique modern temple recently under refurbishment by the subtle pencil of David Chipperfield [1] will soon have to be prepared to receive the extra additional space designed by the winner competition office leaded by Herzog & De Meuron [2]. Despite the rebirth of the building´s prestige there is still a gap of knowledge on the construction philosophy pursued by Mies van der Rohe, who conceived the Galeria Project as a phenomenological duality of lightness and heaviness in within a constant game of oppositions, exquisitely intended to intensify human emotions. Far beyond a mere construction, the magnificent museum became a place where the Silesia stone terrace seemed to detain the historical time meanwhile the biotite grey steel structure was encapsulating a flexible space embracing the dynamic elapse of life. The investigation undertaken by this author on the building´s original working drawings at the MvdR Archive in New York revealed unknown details which are helping nowadays to achieve a deeper understanding on the design and construction process of the iconic miesian museum. The underground ventilation channels running beneath the monolithic concrete plinth refreshing the interior volume with perfumed air from the garden´s lindens, altogether with the heroic columns and the freestanding glass membranes of the façades, resume today´s dilemma of the global high-tech city within the natural realm.

FINANCIAL-ACCOUNTING RISK MANAGEMENT REGARDING THE EMERGENCY PUBLIC HOSPITALS IN ROMANIA

We have considered regarding this paper[1] the identification and evaluation of the financial and accounting risks within the public emergency hospital located in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, which has a great impact on its objectives. The main objectives of the public emergency hospital in Romania are: guaranteeing the quality and safety of the medical act, endowment with medical devices and medical devices necessary for a quality medical act, institutional development by improving infrastructure, diversifying and increasing the quality of medical services offered to patients, tracking population accessibility and patient satisfaction, respecting the dignity and rights of patients, ensuring optimal conditions for medical investigations, treatment, accommodation, hygiene, nutrition and prevention of nosocomial infections, ensuring high standards of professional competence and encouraging their continuous development, increasing the satisfaction of medical staff, monitoring the achievement of the indicators contracted with the Health Insurance House, the management indicators, the realization of the revenues and expenditures, the analysis of the costs of the specific indicators on each section and the overall regarding the hospital, continuous professional training of employees, maximizing the efficiency of public funds. The sample of the scientific research gathered a number of 7 emergency hospitals, multi-specialties, which according to the degree of competence belong to Ist category (very high degree, respectively, having the highest level of equipment and equipment medical and human resources and ensures the provision of medical services of very high complexity) and IInd (high degree, respectively, with a high level of medical equipment, as well as with human resources and ensures the provision of services medical complexity). The period for the analysis is 2012-2017, the data being taken from the website of the Ministry of Health of Romania and of the National School of Public Health, Sanitary Management and Sanitation – Research and Evaluation Center for Health Services. Starting from the quantitative indicators of each analyzed hospital (number of beds, degree of bed use, number of hospitalization days, average of length hospitalization, number of hospitalization days, number of discharged cases), and taking into account the level of receipts and payments, we have concluded that the main financial and accounting risk factors that may influence the objectives of the public emergency hospital in Romania. [1]This article is an extended paper that was presented within the SGEM Vienna Art, International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conferences on Social Sciences and Arts, in April 2019, DOI: 10.5593/SGEM_GeoConference.

CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS IN TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

The objective of the work is the application of contrastive approach in teaching English to analyse the pros and cons of the contrastive method in teaching foreign language pronunciation to young learners compared to non-contrastive (monolingual) method used at our Slovak primary schools. This article determines the dominant influence of the learner’s mother tongue/native language (L1) in the process of learning/teaching pronunciation foreign/second language (L2) and by using contrastive approach tries to enhance positive transfer from the L1 and the reduction of possible negative transfer from L1 to L2 using appropriate teaching techniques and effective tools. The study will be carried out on English language non-native teachers working at a public and private Slovak primary school to find out their needs in the field of teaching pronunciation (questionnaires) and will be focused on quasi-experimental pupils’ group trained separately with and without contrastive approach before recording them and analysing the results. The experimental group will be trained in cognitive contrastive approach concerning segmental, suprasegmental and prosodic phonetics systems comparing Slovak and English languages sound systems. The control group will be trained by using imitative-intuitive ways with the same texts in reading and free speaking topics as the first group. Both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques will be used in the study and the triangulation of research methods will be finished by contend analyses of mainly used English textbooks which are mail regular sources for learning/teaching pronunciation. The most important will be the practical output for teachers and pupils in creating specially designed pronunciation concerned materials for meeting specific needs of our Slovak primary school level determining the influence and interference of Slovak mother tongue in learning/teaching pronunciation.

MUSZYNA ZDRÓJ - 10 YEARS OF SPATIAL CHANGES IN THE TOWN AND IN THE SPA

The aim of the article is to present activities in Muszyna Zdrój, located in the region of southern Poland spa resorts. In Poland there are 45 spa resorts (mostly small towns and villages) half of them were developed in the southern part of Poland and many of them are interesting examples of the transformations of the urban public space in the spa resorts. Almost all those settlements are locate in the outstanding natural environment including landscapes, climate and above all in the water, confirm a number of studies and a long tradition of conducting treatment advances in medicinal uses of many diseases. After a period of stagnation caused by ownership transformations in health resorts associated with the privatization and the reprivatisation of property nationalized after the Second World War. As well as long-term negligence in the period of system change in Poland after 1989. The activities carried out during last 10 years in Muszyna Zdrój like in the other health resorts located in the south of Poland focused to improve the quality of public spaces in these towns. Muszyna Zdrój is one of the most effective in attracting financial resources from European funds for all designed activities example. Muszyna Zdrój is a small historical town with developed in the beginning of XX century spa resort. The main advantages of the spa were climate, values of the landscape and sources of mineral waters. The spa resort is separate by the River Poprad from the town and develop separately. After few years of dynamic spatial changes in Muszyna Zdrój, the town and the spa resort become revitalized. Now Muszyna Zdrój is one of the good example of recent spatial changes in the health resorts of the whole of southern Poland spas. The main revitalization activities in the health resort consisted in creating a modern place for outside events, walking areas, place when everyone can drink the mineral water from the source and rest in different and attractive parks or spend time in outside mineral pools. New paths along the Poprad River and parks, designed and implemented in the spa part of the resort serves both residents, visitors and numerous tourists visiting the town and the spa. Activities undertaken in Muszyna Zdrój serve not only to improve the attractiveness of the town by improving the quality of public spaces for the comfort of visitors and tourists, but also for the sake of residents as well as natural resources of mineral resources thanks to which the spa towns have been functioning for centuries.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AS AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN IMPROVING HEALTH IN THE ELDERLY WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES

The goal of the study was to research the level of the quality of life as a whole and within certain domains, the level of physical activity, and to establish the correlation between physical activity and the quality of life in the elderly suffering from type 2 diabetes and the elderly not suffering from from type 2 diabetes in the Republic of Croatia. Quantitative methodology was used in the research. 120 examinees from 65 to 93 years of age participated in the rand were divided into two groups. The study used a sociodemographic questionnaire for the examinees, WHOQOL-bref questionnaire for the evaluation of the quality of life and PASE questionnaire for the evaluation of the physical activity level in the elderly.In accordance with the set goals, this research established that the perceived quality of life in the elderly does not deviate from the values to be found in the healthy population. The greatest value within the total sample was taken by the domain of satisfaction with the environmental domain, while the satisfaction with the social relations had the lowest average value compared to the other domains. The range of index ITM results amounts to 18.90 to 46.77 with the mean value of 26.47. Persons with type 2 diabetes have a low level of estimated bodily activity and do not participate in any activities such as walking or moving lasting for longer periods of time or being of a higher intensity, which is due to the primary disease.